Their uniforms are very showy. That of the Royal Guard--which, numbering rather more than a thousand women, is always stationed about the King's person--consists of a sleeveless tunic, surtout, or waistcoat of different colours, buttoning down the front, a pink, blue, or yellow loin-wrapper, or kilt, reaching to the ancles, a sash, generally white, tied round the waist, and folding down in two long ends on the left side, and a fillet of blue or white cotton round the head. The arms are left bare. A black leather belt, with cartridge box--or "agluadya"--forms a girdle, with holds the surtout tight to the figure. This belt is sometimes ornamented with cowrie shells; on it are hung bandoleers, which contain, in separate compartments, twelve, sixteen, or even twenty wooden powder-boxes. Each cartridge contains about four times the quantity of powder used in English cartridges, and the bullet is not placed in it as in Europe; a small leather ball-bag hangs from the shoulder by a strap which passes through the belt. When the Amazons are loading, they pour the powder into the barrel without any wadding, and then drop in a bullet, or a few slugs. Shaving the head is a general, though not a universal fashion. Those who do so, leave only a small tuft of hair like a cockade; others, however, who do not follow this custom, shave a narrow strip, two inches in breadth, from the forehead to the crown of the head. When the Amazons are on the march, the privates are obliged to carry an immense number of articles absolutely necessary for a campaign under the scorching sun of Africa. Packs, containing their bed-mats, a change of clothes, and food for a fortnight--said food consisting of toasted grains or bean cakes spiced with pepper--small stools with three or four legs, two cartridge-boxes, water-gourds, fetish-sacks, powder-calabashes, bullet-wallets, fans, wooden pipe-cases, leather tobacco-bags, hats made of felt or straw, and palm-leaf umbrellas, are just a few of the things carried by them on the march. The King of Dahomey is very proud of his female soldiers, whom he frequently passes in review. He regards these Amazonian field-days with a pride akin to that of Frederick the Great at one of the Potzdam Reviews, or Napoleon at a review of his Old Guard.